Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2007 19:28:41 -0500
Reply-To: Sam Johnson <wrey45@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Sam Johnson <wrey45@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Roadside Troubles while on Vacationing
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A few breakdowns in twenty-three years and over 273,000 miles of owning the
same Vanagon – only one kept me in the same place overnight. Heavily leaking
water pump in the mountains of West Virginia on my way to Kansas from New
Jersey. Local parts place ordered one and we were on our way the very next
day. I had all the tools needed but was offered a lift to the hotel by an
old hillbilly with whom I still keep in touch after some ten years. I was
not yet wise enough to carry a spare as the wisdom of this list suggest. I
do carry one today of course! A clogged cat slowed my progress but I was
still able to reach home in the slow lane about two hundred miles away.
Another time, one arm of the clutch release shaft broke off completely so I
could no longer change gears the easy way. On the advice of an old truck
driver in a bar where I went to call for help (no cell phone those days) I
managed to drive the Vanagon all the way back to Toronto from the wilds of
Pennsylvania stopping once at the tollbooth and once at the border, each
time having to shut the motor off and start in first gear!! Made it though!!
There was the time I had to meet the wife at the Buffalo Airport. Drove to
the border from Toronto and while waiting in line at the checkpoint I
noticed what seemed like smoke blowing past my van and wondered whose badly
tuned vehicle was making all that smoke? It soon dawned on me that it was
steam and the culprit was my beloved Vanagon! OH NO – what do I do now? Had
to shut the van off until I was cleared to get to the customs agent and
after I was cleared pulled aside to find that the coolant hose from the
right head just split open and was pumping antifreeze on the ground. Managed
to cut off the damaged piece and somehow (really difficult) managed to force
the remaining end back onto the head and clamp it in place. Picked up the
wife and went camping for a week with it like that. Another time while
camping in the Allegany Mountains of PA, I struck a deer on a darkened road
and punctured the radiator – this late on a Saturday night in the woods with
a foreign auto! Made for an uneasy sleep that nigh but the next day I used
some sealant I had and stuffed it liberally into the small hole allowing it
to dry for at least five hours. Refilled with water and drove a few hundred
miles back to Toronto. That was the original radiator from 1984 and that fix
never leaked for the next seven years and I never bothered to fix it. It was
finally replaced last year when it started l leaking at a different spot on
account of age. Would I trade this van - Naw! We must always be together
because we know each other so well!!!
Sam
